On Android, 'permissions' are used when an app requests the right to do something with your phone like make it vibrate, make a call or access your data. Almost all apps need some special permissions, and the system is there to make sure that you know what apps can do, and to protect your safety and privacy.

We take your privacy very seriously – you can get an impression of how seriously by taking a look at our privacy policy. We also believe in being responsible developers, only asking for permissions when we need them to enhance the features of our app, or your experience of it. Recently, we've made a number of major enhancements to the Guardian Android app, and at the same time we've increased the number of permissions we ask for. Some people regularly ask us why we request permissions; this is completely understandable, sensible even. So, here's the full rundown of all of the permissions we request, and why.

Accounts

Add or remove accounts/Create accounts and set passwordsBoth of these permissions are required so that you can register and login in the app. They allow us to create a new Guardian account on your device so that you can comment, and in the future use other services from the Guardian. If you sign out, these permissions also allow us to remove that account.

Find accounts on deviceTo make users' lives as easy as possible, the app allows you to sign in with a number of providers, including Google+, Facebook, and Twitter. This allows us to discover and use these - with your permission. Without this, we couldn't enable social sign-in in the standard way. We never use or post content to any social networks without asking you first.

Privacy (added April 2014)

Approximate location / precise locationWe are developing ways to make it easier for readers to interact with our news-gathering process, and app users will soon be able to contribute their content to our stories via our GuardianWitness platform. While making a contribution you can choose to include your location and this permission enables this functionality.

Network communication

Full network accessThis allows the app to get the latest Guardian content using your internet connection – which is, obviously, essential for a live-news app. As well as text, this includes pictures, videos, audio, and live-blog updates.

Receive data from the internetThe app now has news alerts. These allow us to notify you about certain breaking news events and important stories, as well as when your favourite football team scores a goal. This permission allows us to use the notification service. We understand that notifications in some apps can occasionally be overused distracting, but we promise not to spam you! You can edit your notification options in the settings area of the app.

View network connectionsThe app allows users to download data for offline reading. This is a really handy feature. It means you can automatically download and store your favourite sections at a specific time, for instance just before you leave the house so you can read them on your commute – even without a network connection. However, this feature can use a lot of data, so we let users restrict its use to when there is a Wi-Fi connection available. This permission enables the feature by allowing the app to detect what kind of connection is available.

Storage

Modify or delete the contents of your USB storage/Test access to protected storageThis allows us to store data locally on your device and is needed for downloading content for offline reading.

Affects battery

Prevent the phone from going to sleepFor offline downloading the app temporarily wakes the phone to get data, before going to sleep again. This permission enables this behaviour. Check out 'View network connections' for a bit more on automatic downloading and offline reading.

Control vibrationNews notifications can make your phone vibrate when they arrive, a bit like an email or text message. This permission allows the app to do this.

So, next time you're wondering about permissions I hope that this article, exhaustive as it is, helps to explain what can sometimes be quite an opaque part of Android. If we change our permissions in the future, we'll update this article.

As always, we welcome your feedback, suggestions and comments. You can reach us via @guardianmobile on Twitter or in the comments for this article.